Tocky on 17/5/2022 at 03:13
I took this on the way home from work today. It was an important vehicle in my early years. Living in the country we didn't get to go to the library very often so we kept track of when the book mobile would show up to dive into it's dark recess for exploration and discovery. I suppose funding cuts decommissioned it. I've no idea where it went for decades but it showed up on the side of the road recently. A bit of a "hey remember me?" from some sentimental soul. I do. I have fond memories. I also still have one of the books. They never charged a late fee, which is good, because it's fifty years over due.
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https://i.imgur.com/yDE55zo.jpgAged Raver on 18/5/2022 at 06:44
>… The wipers were vacuum driven and hilarious in the rain for an inability to shed water. I remember them well.
This was my first car (me trying to look like Ricky Nelson or someone). It was a van (Ford Thames 100E) of 1954 vintage and windows had been put in the side at the rear. It had a wooden floor in the back and a bench seat was installed so it was sort-of a car. Rear passengers climbed in via the front doors.
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https://i.postimg.cc/nLM2SjZ4/Cars1.jpgThere was a manual choke for cold weather starts and if the battery was flat, which it often was, you could start the engine with a crank handle you stuck in the front of the car, I think through a hole in the chrome bumper. I quickly learned to put all of my hand over the crank handle rather than hold between hand and thumb. Otherwise when the engine started, the handle came back round with such speed and force it almost broke your thumb. The other well known way of starting, given foresight to park on an incline was push, run alongside, jump in, and engage second gear. Or, when taking girlfriend home at night, getting her to push, with me waving hand out window as I sailed into the darkness, tooting, before eventually turning lights on.
3 gears + reverse. On my friend’s open top Singer you had to double de-clutch but this had a modern clutch. No radio although photo shows aerial, no seat belts, and seat coverings were in some sort of plastic that got clammy in Summer. Air conditioning via the little triangular window in the door which was very effective, although dead easy to open from outside. On cold days the windscreen steamed up, and the wiper, as with yours, was powered from vacuum created in a small tank under the bonnet by the engine. When you turned a switch, the tank sucked in air, causing the wiper to move, quite adequate in gentle rain but not good going up hill when the engine struggled and lower revs meant the vacuum wasn’t maintained and the wiper ground to a halt. I still remember in driving rain, coming to the bottom of a very steep hill and having to pull off the road completely, as I couldn’t see a thing.
And it had indicator lights, not the little physical arm that rose out the side of the vehicle (like on a friend’s old car) and a wing mirror! The engine would have lasted forever but body-rust let it down and it failed it’s annual test, so sadly I took it to the scrap yard and bought a “newer” 100E saloon version (1958 model). For some reason the engine didn’t seem good so I went back to the scrap yard, bought back my original engine and my Dad and I swapped them.
Everything under the bonnet was easy to get at and we carried the engine onto the floor of Mum’s small kitchen. It was there for about a week and she never complained. Dad re-ground the valves and it was the only time in my life when I understood how an engine worked because I handled every piece. Everything was mechanical. Today I haven’t a clue, so much electronics and sealed units such that if it goes wrong you have to throw the whole unit away. On that return to the scrap yard, as well as the engine, I also removed the old Number plate, as a souvenir, which I still have.
I tell a lie. This was my first car.
Pedal powered.
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https://i.postimg.cc/RF5t1N0V/Cars2.jpgEven then, a girl from across the road would push me along the pavement.
My cars weren’t exactly
girl pullers.
Tocky on 18/5/2022 at 19:35
Seems like they were pulling in the girls to me. Something was. I'm sorry I complained about my backseat now though. A couple of my buds had one of those when I was stationed in England (not with a hand crank but you could push start them) and they were not crowd pleasers. And yeah, you do look a bit like Ricky Nelson in that pic.
There were times in the seventies that I wish cars still had a choke on them. It was a delicate dance when you had to use one to keep it from flooding though. My dad had an international that was three pumps while the choke was on then push it off and two after before it would crank. If you deviated from that formula you would be waiting for it to unflood for half an hour. Here it is behind me.
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https://i.imgur.com/cNPcEPQ.jpgIt was great to hear your story of working with your dad. Mine was not mechanically inclined. Any time there was a problem he urged me to take my car to somebody he knew who was good at it and they were too but all of my buddies fixed their own and I did as well. We were always leaning in the hood of one or another if not under or even sitting on the metal wheel well skirt they no longer have, not that there is any room to work on one these days even if they did. I've held the transmission of a 72 Chevelle while the bolts were put in as it sat in a driveway. I've changed the water pump of that 72 Skylark after it busted at a red light in Oxford. Strangers helped me push it off into the shade to do so. My dad would always urge me to just call a mechanic. But Dad, it's four bolts and three wires and you can't short out a starter because the ground is easy to recognize, I would tell him. It's easy! If I didn't sneak out to work on mine then he would have someone called before I knew it. He just didn't understand how mortified I was at not fixing my own stuff.
Here is a 61 Impala like my buddy Richard had. He too had rusted out rear floor boards. They made it easy to get rid of your stash if the cops lit you up though.
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https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.09fa1987adc984697da6b6512e7dfa56?rik=0eKDrLQl3ibqMA&riu=http%3a%2f%2fsmclassiccars.com%2fuploads%2fpostfotos%2f1961-chevy-biscayne-4dr-flat-top-sedan-24k-orig-mil-vintage-air-bel-air-impala-8.jpg&ehk=Tn0nRPcFBafb8cRs2OBsRDCypZewOVrxBRvcn1IrOWA%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0Draxil on 18/5/2022 at 21:04
The first car I ever bought was a used '96 Saturn SL2. I paid $800 for it, and it had 298,000 miles on it. The sun-roof didn't work and had been sealed with 3 tubes of silicone caulk, and it reeked of heavy oil because the owner, my friend, had used it to transport some industrial motors. 2nd gear and reverse didn't work, and I couldn't afford to have it fixed at first, so for one long summer I either pulled through when parking or made sure I parked far enough away that I had time to Fred Flinstone it backwards. My left leg got really strong. The power windows were only semi-powered, they needed help to go up. Sudden rains sucked. It got great mileage, though, and I learned to work on it through help from dad and more help from youtube. I spent 8 hours in a 100+ degree garage one July afternoon trying to replace the alternator. It came out super easy--but it had to be held just so to fit back through that opening, and I hadn't paid much attention. A valuable lesson.
About 4 months after buying it, a UPS driver pulled away from a curb without looking, ripping off my driver's side mirror, turning the lock sideways, and leaving a long scrape down the door. They gave me $2000 to have it fixed. I went to U-Wrench-it and found a $15 mirror. I never locked the door, anyway, because no one in their right mind would want to steal it, and the scratch matched the peeling clear-coat all over the car. I loved that car--I drove to Colorado Springs with my fiancee (now wife), and we fell down the sand dunes west of Pueblo at 2 AM. I never could get rid of the sand from that trip. I ended up selling it for about $400.
Tocky on 19/5/2022 at 03:54
When you are without reverse you have to think ahead. At least you can push a Saturn if you get in a tight. Lucky it wasn't a Lincoln. Sometimes the ones that give us the most trouble also give us the best memories though. I have been through the area you speak of too. Out near Royal Gorge anyway. From there we went up to Cripple Creek instead of down to the Great Sand Dunes park so it may not have been exactly. We went in a rental that time but most vehicles that I buy these days are SUV's for travel. An air mattress in the back and you don't have to hunt a hotel. I say that like I've slept a lot in them but mostly it's the comfort of a hotel for geezers these days. There are definite differences though. I hated this one because it had no power for mountain roads. It came with four wheel drive and had a six cylinder so I thought it would be okay. Nope. When it got in a strain it went into "reduced power mode". WTF? Sit for a bit and it was fine but still who the hell ever heard of something like reduced power limp mode and having to change a throttle position sensor because of it?
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https://i.imgur.com/YSpw7ZH.jpg?2Rather than go newer we went older and V8 for our last car. I've thought of getting something else but what? Nothing else would have as little trouble for as much fun.
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https://i.imgur.com/KxW1sek.jpg?2Also the Brian I was talking about in the OP checking out a customers Cord.
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https://i.imgur.com/AC4s9VP.jpgAlso also one of my customers bikes I found amusing. The nips light up.
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https://i.imgur.com/nnlC0Op.jpgrachel on 19/5/2022 at 08:07
Tocky, I caught Ford vs Ferrari the other day and I'm thinking it could be right up your alley if you haven't seen it yet. Great flick about Ford creating the GT40 to go toe to toe against Ferrari at Le Mans. The track scenes are spectacular :)
Tocky on 19/5/2022 at 17:18
I might. I saw
Worlds Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins and enjoyed that. I tend to like the man vs machine things, a holdover from street racing as a teen, I guess. The one friend I could never beat in the quarter mile was Craig. His parents were divorced and his dad threw money at him. So what is a teen going to do with money? Buy a Plymouth Duster with a bored over balanced and blueprinted hemi engine with a blower of course. He was the most reckless person I knew with the fastest car I've seen. Oddly he didn't kill himself and owns a Bed and Breakfast in New Hampshire now.
It looked like this but all blue.
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https://hot-cars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/custom_built_1971_plymouth_duster-336x180.jpgTocky on 21/5/2022 at 03:45
Since he is on my mind I'll tell you of the time Richard crashed drag racing. No way he should have lived. I had been in the car with Craig the time we skipped school in that Duster above and he blew through a red light and tapped an old guy going through. Ruined the days plans and we spent it paying off the dude then hunting for a fender and having a body man he knew paint it so his parents never knew. I had no idea he was color blind. About the worst wreck I had been a passenger in though. Nothing compared to Richards.
Richard and Elliott both had 75 Chevy Monte Carlo's. Elliott had a red one with a 350 engine. Richard had a blue one with a 455 and a Holly four barrel double pumper . That is one hell of an engine. In the half mile there is no way to beat it. Ah but in the quarter. We were not on Shiloh road when they decided to race. I was in Elliott's car and Frank in Richards. We had passed the twin bridges which would have been the best place but there was still plenty of straightaway on Old Dallas road to go. It was neck and neck. It should have ended before we topped the hill because just after that was the T junction and beyond that a stand of pines thick and ready for harvest. It didn't.
Elliott let off to be able to stop. Richard surged on ahead. He said later his pedal stuck. I think he just wanted to win. I had my hands on the dash as we squalled to a stop and watched Richard and Frank plow into the pines as big as your waist. I was sure they were both dead. We ran across the road to open their doors as steam poured from the front. The front had been mashed all the way to the windshield post. They must have still been going eighty when they hit. Frank was holding his head. There was a broken dome where his head had hit the glass. He was talking though. They both were. No seat belts and no real blood. A fucking miracle. "I just filled it up!" Richard yelled. I felt his pain. It was a nice car. His brother had given it to him recently. "So I guess I can siphon the gas for my car", I said. "Fuck you man, my car is dead and you want the gas?", Richard said. "How am I going to get home even?" I told him I could take him but I was on empty. "Goddamit take it", he said. We had to call a tow to get it off the pine it centered though. My chain wouldn't budge it.
Richards looked like this. Elliotts was red.
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https://i.imgur.com/B42iuzG.jpgmxleader on 25/7/2022 at 00:05
Nice 66'! I had two 67's and a 69' Lemans in the early 90's. I blew up the engine in the 69' driving 115mph on a back road on Whidbey Island, WA when I was stationed there. One of the 67's was just for parts as the body was too far gone with rust. The one I drove the most was a family car that my grandparents bought new, then sold to my dad, then he sold it to me. That was my most favorite classic car of all time for the ones that I've owned over the years.
Quote Posted by Tocky
Cars AND stories. Cool. That would be a Saturn SC2, right Pyrian? Weird how Saturn got better looking as it went along. Had they started out that way then they would still be in business. And David must have felt like James Bond just pulling up to the pump. Those are not the Citroen's I recall, rachel. They have gotten stylish and less odd to an American eye. Love those stories and the Porsche, Aja. I had a wheel come off my 72 GTO once as I was turning in to see what the shaking was. I turned. It kept going straight. Had to replace some of the lugs on that one. Then there was the time the brakes went out atop the steepest hill in Oxford. I managed to use the parking brake like a regular brake until I could get it over. If I had gone down that hill it would have been impossible though.
Here is a 66 lemans like the one in Night of the Living Dead that I bought for $200 bucks. I didn't really believe the lady when she said it was running when she set it on blocks but once I replaced the gas tank it fired right up. God that was a hard hot job cutting through the straps on that other tank. I could spot cars like this when I was out driving every day. I remember Richard helped me put tires on it and pull it home. A good memory with a good friend.
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https://i.imgur.com/NAYlDib.jpgInline Image:
https://i.imgur.com/TAODCKm.jpgOur old Oldsmobile family car in the background.
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https://i.imgur.com/Rw9lAyb.jpgI sold it one year to give my kids a big Christmas. Great car but look at those kids. Greater kids.
